Professional replaces bureaucrat: Zarrar appointed IT, Telecom Division secretary

ISLAMABAD: For the first time, a professional from the private sector has been appointed to a Grade-22 post.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has approved the appointment of Zarrar Hasham Khan as Secretary Information Technology and Telecom Division. He has been appointed on contract for two years. The post was advertised by the Establishment Division.

Fifteen candidates were shortlisted. The selection board, headed by Federal Economic Affairs Minister Ahad Cheema, sent a panel of three candidates to the prime minister after interviews. Zarrar Hasham Khan was on the top of the panel, Azfar Manzoor second and Usman Mubeen third.

Apart from the Ministry of Law and Justice, this is the first ministry in which a federal secretary has been appointed from the private sector. The purpose of this appointment is to hire a professional instead of bureaucrat to deal with the challenges being faced in the IT sector and that of social media.

Zarrar Hasham Khan belongs to Tando Jan Muhammad, a small town in Sindh's Mirpurkhas District. He was born on October 21, 1976. In 1999, he completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering from Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute. In 2013, he received a degree from Harvard Business School, Harvard University. In 2014, he completed the Oxford Strategy Leadership Programme from Oxford University and Strategy Implementation Course from London Business School in 2015. In 2020, he did his MBA from University of Warwick, UK. Zarrar Hasham was previously working as Group Chief Business Solutions Officer at Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL). As CBSO, he was responsible for development and delivery of the entire Telecom and IT portfolio for B2B and B2G customers.

As head of wholesale business unit, he managed local and international connectivity for voice and data, as well as PTCL’s investments in international submarine infrastructure. As Group Chief he was responsible for Ufone’s entire corporate division.

Zarrar Hasham worked for 11 years in STC-Kuwait (a Saudi Telecom Group company) as Chief Technology Officer defining strategy and overseeing its execution for Telecom, IT and ICT infrastructure. In that role, he spearheaded one of the largest commercial deployments of 5G services in the world. Zarrar also sat at the Policy Board of SAMENA Telecommunications Council.